Entertainment

How Private Are Your Messages on Facebook, When it Comes to the Law?

In the case T.V. versus Union Township Board of Education, a teenager was sexually assaulted in 2003 by another middle schooler, who was convicted. As T.V. is blaming the school for the emotional distress that was caused to her as a result of her assault, the issue here is regarding the assaulted teenager's state of mind has been called into question. The Union Township Board of Education is looking to Facebook and MySpace to gain access to her private blog postings and messages in order to address her claim of emotional distress. Can Facebook and MySpace be forced to grant access to the teenager's personal accounts?

There has been much debate in the courts regarding the privacy issues surrounding access to private blog postings and personal messages, and the debate continues with this particular case as well. Some would like to treat messages on social networking sites in the same manner as emails sent across Yahoo or AOL. Others maintain that access should never be granted as this is a direct violation of privacy.

The facts in this case are somewhat complicated, but it boils down to the fact that T.V. did sign a waiver allowing for her personal information to be accessed, but the matter got sticky when the question arose of whether or not her Facebook and MySpace accounts could be included in this waiver. While, from a legal standpoint, the privacy issue is not fully resolved, the fact remains that MySpace and Facebook have yet to respond to the requests for T.V.'s personal information. The result of this case could affect how social networks are treated in comparison to other portals for communication, such as email accounts and telephones.

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